Photograph by: THE CANADIAN PRESS
, Jason Franson

EDMONTON — While the hockey world focuses on the Vancouver Canucks playing without suspended head coach John Tortorella, the team's bigger problem is playing without captain Henrik Sedin.

For the first time in 680 National Hockey League games since March 21, 2004, the Canucks will be without Sedin when they face the Edmonton Oilers here tonight (6:30 p.m., Sportsnet Pacific, Team 1040), desperate to build momentum after Saturday's tumultuous 3-2 shootout win against the Calgary Flames.

Sedin left the game after two periods with a rib injury suffered Thursday in Phoenix, while Tortorella was suspended Monday by the NHL for 15 days and six games for storming towards the Flames' dressing room during the first intermission.

“They're both key guys for us,” interim head coach Mike Sullivan said after this morning's skate. “They both have an influence on what goes on. Henrik, obviously, is a bigger influence because he actually plays and he is arguably our best player. To not have Henrik in the lineup certainly doesn't help our team.

“Having said that, when players go down, my experience being in the league is it provides opportunities for other guys to step up and assume larger roles and bigger responsibilities and certain players embrace that. Our hope is that our guys will rally around the fact Henrik's not in our lineup tonight and make sure we … have a solid team game that makes up for his absence.”

The win against Calgary was just Vancouver's second in 10 games and came after a five-on-five brawl initiated by Flames coach Bob Hartley on the opening faceoff.

Hartley was fined $25,000 by the NHL for his starting lineup selections, which included moving heavyweight winger Kevin Westgarth to centre for the opening faceoff in order to engage Canuck minor-league call-up Kellan Lain.

Both Sullivan, who will run the forwards tonight on the bench while Glen Gulutzan handles Canucks defencemen, and Oilers head coach Dallas Eakins said they will not be starting their fourth lines.

“Luke (Gazdic) will not be playing centre ice tonight,” Eakins said, referring to his enforcer-winger.

While the Canucks try to stay on the right side of the playoff race, the Oilers are playing for respect after owner Daryl Katz sent an open letter to fans, asking for patience, that was essentially a white flag on Edmonton's season.

Despite a pile of high draft picks in recent years, the Oilers are last in the Western Conference at 15-30-6 and have won just two of their last 11 games.

“We're going to come out here and play as hard as we possibly can,” Edmonton winger Ryan Jones said. “I can honestly say, I haven't played a game for this team yet where I looked around the room and thought there was anybody who wasn't going to give it their all. For whatever reason, the season hasn't gone the way we wanted. But it's not because guys don't want to win, that's for damn sure.”

Eakins said the Canucks' recent combativeness — the brawl against Calgary, a ferocious 1-0 loss last week in Los Angeles and an incident late in a 9-1 loss to the Anaheim Ducks — doesn't change the way the Oilers prepare for this game.

“My wife asked me: ‘When did the Canucks get so tough?’ ” Eakins said. “I said: ‘They were tough right from the start of the season.’ The personnel is all there.

“All that went on there (for the Canucks against the Flames) … sometimes brings the room closer together. And sometimes it does nothing.”

Asked if he would consider charging the other team's dressing room as Tortorella did, Eakins thought about it, then said: “The problem for me with it is what if they let me in? They close the door and don't let me out. That has not gone through my head.”

Daniel Sedin is the only Canuck who has ever played a game for Vancouver without Henrik.

The new first line tonight is expected to see Ryan Kesler centre Daniel and Alex Burrows, while Zac Dalpe, a healthy scratch on Saturday, centres Chris Higgins and Jannik Hansen on the second line.

Roberto Luongo will be in goal for Canucks, opposed by new Oiler Ben Scrivens.

“Those twins seems to do everything together,” Eakins, who roomed with Henrik during a training-camp tryout for the Canucks in 2003, said of the Sedins. “Can the other one not play, too? That would be awesome if that could happen.”

Sullivan hasn't been a head coach since the Boston Bruins fired him in 2006 after two seasons in charge. He was 70-56-15-23 in Boston.

“I think our players have a pretty good understanding of what our team identity is and how we want to play,” Sullivan said. “We've got to get back to that consistency of effort, night in and night out, that brought us results earlier. We've gone through a little bit of stretch here where we've struggled and we've got to get back to that consistency of play.”

• PLAYERS TO WATCH:

Oilers: G Ben Scrivens, who is from Spruce Grove, Alta., makes his first ever start in Edmonton after his trade last week from the Los Angeles Kings.

Canucks: LW Daniel Sedin, playing without his brother in the lineup for the first time in 10 years, is pointless in four games and goal-less in nine.

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